Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, September 4, 2002

The New York Yankees, the team that stands to lose the most, voted against the agreement, which ensures labor peace until December 2006. Approval by the executive board of the union is considered certain.

"I'm not going to suggest to you today that there are not clubs with very different views, but at some point you have to come together," commissioner Bud Selig said after the two-hour meeting, flanked by his chief negotiators, Bob DuPuy and Rob Manfred.

"I told you last Friday I was a Yogi Berra theorist _ 'It ain't over until it's over.' It's over."

But baseball's turmoil might not be.

The Yankees are considering a lawsuit, and owners must resolve the uncertain status of the Montreal Expos, who could try to move to Washington or another city by next season. Expos president Tony Tavares wants to know within 10 days whether the team will stay or explore a move.

Selig had spent thousands of hours on the telephone with owners to develop a consensus for the labor agreement, and he approved the final moves made by his negotiators last week. The near-unanimous vote was a sign of support he has among the owners.

"I'm in Mayor Richard J. Daley's hometown. They'd have been pleased with the result, and I'm very pleased with the result," Selig said.

The Yankees, who generate the most money in baseball, estimate the annual amount they give up to other clubs will increase from $28 million in 2001 to between $50 million and $55 million next year. The team's lawyers have been examining grounds for a lawsuit.

Yankees president Randy Levine declined comment after the meeting.

"There's absolutely no basis for any challenge to the agreement whatsoever," said DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer.

Kansas City Royals owner David Glass said during the meeting that the agreement was only a start to reforming baseball's economics, according to one baseball official at the session, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It doesn't solve things, but it improves them," Glass said before leaving the hotel at O'Hare International Airport. "It makes things better, but not where we'd like to be. The main thing is we didn't have a work stoppage. That's the big plus."

Negotiators agreed to the deal Friday just 3 hours before the first game that would have been affected by a strike. Since the last deal without a work stoppage in 1970, baseball had been disrupted by five strikes and three lockouts.

Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf _ who voted against the 1996 agreement along with Cleveland, Kansas City and Oakland _ voted for this deal. During the meeting, he said he asked: "Can a team use revenue-sharing money to cut its losses?"

Negotiators said last week that there aren't any restrictions on what teams can do with revenue-sharing money

Negotiators are still drafting a memorandum outlining the deal, and hope to complete it by next week. The contract increases the amount of shared local revenue from 20 percent to 34 percent, institutes a luxury tax with fixed thresholds, increases the minimum salary from $200,000 to $300,000, and provides for mandatory random testing for illegal steroids, which will start next season on a survey basis.

"It's a tremendous step in the right direction for major league baseball," Arizona Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo said. "It's not to say everyone's completely happy, but for the most part, I sensed everyone is very pleased."

Selig now must try to develop a consensus on what to do with the Expos. The franchise, which has averaged just over 10,000 fans per home game, was purchased by the other 29 teams last winter for $120 million.

No major league team has moved since the expansion Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers after the 1971 season, but Selig said in January that relocation would be considered after a labor deal. At the time, he called Washington the prime candidate.

Owners attempted to fold the Expos and Minnesota Twins after the 2001 season but were blocked when courts ordered the Twins to honor their lease at the Metrodome. The labor deal includes a no-contraction pledge through 2006, so the only way to get the Expos out of Montreal is to move them.

"You've got to really slap up everything on a wall, look at all the obstacles and all the benefits and, after a comprehensive analysis, say what's best," Tavares said.

Baltimore owner Peter Angelos objects to moving a team to Washington because he says it would cut into his club's fan base.

"You wouldn't put another team in the same market with Boston or in the same market with St. Louis or the same market with Minnesota. Why then 30 miles from Camden Yards?" he said.